HCWE June 9 WE Show #1

This is a rewrite of this post, since I have no idea where the first write of this post went. Having already said all of the things that needed to be said, I am left without words. I'm sure the first post was better . . . .

Overall thoughts on the show:

First off, one of the things HCWE set out to do this year was bring in some new-to-us judges for our shows. The June shows were judged by Jill Barron, a wonderful woman from Calgary, Canada, who is an accomplished horsewoman, sweet, funny, open and smart. She was very consistent in her scoring, very positive in her comments, gave great feedback to the riders and just a genuinely nice person. It was great to have her in Colorado and we are planning on bringing her back at some point.

Second, Ashke was sound, willing and patient over the two day show. He stood at the trailer without making a fuss for close on 12 hours both days, in heat that reached almost 100 degrees. I kept plenty of hay, grain and fresh water in front of him and he ate, drank, peed and pooped like a trooper. He whinnied EVERY time he saw me, but also had no issues with be observed from a distance as I went about the other things I needed to do to make the show run smoothly.

Third, the overall show went well. There are a few things we could have tightened up and made more efficient, so going forward we will include those items. The show day was fairly long on both days and we will look at providing more shade for people in our July show. Everyone seemed to like Jill, appreciate her feedback, and they all paid attention during their course walks. The course on Saturday was the same course we used in our Championship show in 2016, which had ridden well then and did so again this past weekend. It is a course I was unable to ride in 2016, due to Ashke being injured, and looked forward to riding it in this show.

My experience over the weekend:

Friday night was busy. I had to shop for items for lunch at the show, unload food at home, stop at my barn to pick up the awards, take all of the show items (secretary boxes, computer, etc) to the show trailer at Circle Star and drop them off, then back to my barn to ride Ashke, before packing the trailer and bathing him. Our ride sucked rocks. He was stiff and sore and had no desire to do anything he was asked to do. After our second bolt in the indoor, we moved to the outdoor and practiced our test one time in the outdoor arena. It was a fight, ugly and disharmonious. He is always a pill the first ride back and I was running short of time. I ended up giving him a dose of Bute to help with the muscle pain from his adjustment on Tuesday, then spent an hour washing him. Gods, a grey horse is the bane of a righteous woman. It was warm enough that by the time I had scraped him off and walked him around the outside of the building, he was dry. I bundled him into a sheet despite it being 90 outside and prayed he would stay clean. (For the most part, he did.) By the time I got home, I was wiped out and stressed. Running on exhaustion and anxiety.

I fell asleep sometime between 11:30 and 11:45 and woke up at 3:49 am. It was not very restful. I didn't fall back asleep, but spent the time until the alarm went off dozing and riding through my test in my head. J made breakfast (french toast and bacon) while I got everything packed into the truck or car. I went upstairs to brush my teeth, gagged on the toothpaste (this has been an issue since I got pregnant) and threw up. The vomiting triggered a panic attack, which in turn triggered an asthma attack. I used my inhaler, which left me breathing but fairly vibrating with anxiety. I sent J to pick up the sandwiches for lunch, while I headed to get Ashke loaded.

He walked on the trailer easily, with only a short break weighing his options before walking on. The drive was only a little more than ten minutes away. We got there without issue, got Ashke set up with hay, grain and water, then went to help finalize the organization for the show. Once we were parked, I took some medicine for anxiety before going to help with the show management. Ashke spent his time watching the activities around him and whinnying at me whenever he saw me. I got most (but not all) of the early morning snafus straightened out and the show started.

My first and biggest mistake of the day was getting Ashke ready way to early. I had way too much time to warm up and spent about 30 minutes just walking around the outside dressage ring waiting for our ride slot. It was already in the upper eighties by 10:30 am. When we entered the dressage arena, Ashke was tired and subdued, although he did give me a solid ride. The stall guard over the opening into the dressage court was a spook option for every horse that rode that day. Ashke did pretty good at staying obedient and paying attention to me, although you can see him tilt an ear and sort of flinch away.

L4 Intermediate A Dressage Test

The comments from the judge were spot on. I need to figure out how to maintain my same level of contact within the show arena as I do during my practice rides. *I* need to stop being so afraid of contact with him, of requesting he stay on the bit, of asking for bend and collection. Plus, I need to really figure out how to do a canter-walk transition without falling on the forehand.

The biggest positive however, was the fact that we were both relaxed without anxiety. Better riding through medication.

We had several hours between the dressage and EOH course. Intro did their course walk, then we had time for lunch, and then 8 Introductory EOH rides. After the rides, we had to reset the course by changing a couple of obstacles and moving the numbers. Afterwards, there was a brief course walk and then the last four rides did EOH, followed by Speed.

I saddled Ashke prior to the course walk, since I was trying to leave enough time to warm up. Once again I misjudged the amount of time we had and we ended up waiting for a little longer than I wanted. I would have had a bit more horse, if I had timed it better.

L4 Intermediate EOH Course

I feel like I've taken a huge jump in being able to ride the course. Sometimes, a course will walk differently than it rides and I am getting pretty good at making the necessary adjustments while riding the course. Just like the dressage tests are slowing down for me so I can set up and plan before the next movement, the same thing is happening with the EOH courses. He is also less spooky on course, overall, although he recognized the spiky plants by the gate from the Expo show two years ago and wanted nothing to do with them. Overall, I thought it was a good ride.

There wasn't much of a wait until the speed trial. One of the riders DQ'd in the EOH trial and opted to scratch, so there were only three Speed rounds. You can hear me roaring in the video as we finished. I managed to give myself an asthma attack and couldn't find my inhaler in the trailer (we had the judge and four or five others trying to locate it) but was rescued by one of our other members. 

Speed

At the end of the day, Ashke did a great job of being a Working Equitation horse and wonderful partner to me. He seemed to really understand his job, was patient with all of the standing, and didn't even get fussy when we were the last trailer to leave. I was very impressed with his maturity and how well he held up his end of the deal. There was another rider in my division, so we did have competition. We won all three phases and the overall championship. This was the bridle holder we gave as Champion prize: